Treasure Coast students have extra time this year to prepare for FCAT

A year ago Wednesday, students in grades 4, 8 and 10 penned essays for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test's writing portion. A month later, students in grades 3 through 10 took reading and math portions of the exam and students in grades 5, 8 and 10 also took the science test.

Thanks to legislation passed in 2008, students have extra time to prepare for the state-mandated high-stakes test beginning with the current school year.

The writing portion will be given March 1 and testing in reading, math and science will resume April 11.

"The later FCAT testing dates provide more time for instruction, which is always beneficial for students," said Teresa D'Albora, Martin County School District's executive director for instructional services.

Besides the later start date, there are other changes for the test.

It's the debut of an upgraded FCAT, which the state has dubbed FCAT 2.0.

FCAT 2.0 will test students' comprehension of the state's new Next Generation Sunshine State Standards, which are considered more rigorous than previous academic benchmarks.

The new reading FCAT will be given in grades 3 through 10 and includes more historical documents and classical literature.

The new math FCAT will be given in grades 3 through 8. Students in 10th grade will continue taking the old math FCAT, but it will be given on a computer, not with pencil and paper.

And for the first time, there will be no ninth-grade math FCAT.

In 2010, lawmakers called for the eventual phasing out of the FCAT at the high school level beginning with this year's freshman class. The legislation phases in the three new end-of-course exams in math and science that will replace the high school FCAT math and science exams. It's also is in line with new graduation requirements that say by the 2013-14 school year, incoming high school students will have to pass geometry, Algebra I and biology end-of-course exams to graduate.

This year instead of the ninth-grade math FCAT, most high school freshmen will take a new, computer-based Algebra I end-of-course exam in May, which will count toward 30 percent of their grade. The law requires the end-of-course exams to be administered within the last two weeks of the course.

While the later test schedule gives teachers more time to prepare students, the downside is there will be less time to grade the exams and send them back to the schools before the end of the school year.

Last year's FCAT results, which were supposed to have been completed in May by NCS Pearson, were delayed and came in a month late.

Pearson, which received more than $250 million to handle the tests, reported computer glitches and individual student scores didn't arrive in districts until early July. The delays frustrated many school administrators, who use the results to help make decisions on student promotion and class assignment and on teachers' duties.

The testing company paid Florida more than $14.7 million in damages, revamped its testing systems and added people to its Florida staff.

D'Albora said the state "is aware of the need to get the results back as quickly as possible and we believe we will receive them in a timely manner."

More changes will be phased in for 2012, including an upgraded science FCAT for fifth- and eighth-graders, and the elimination of the 10th-grade math FCAT and the 11th-grade science FCAT. Those tests will be replaced by end-of-course geometry and biology exams, also taken on a computer.

For now, the FCAT remains for elementary and middle-school students.

Depending on the availability of federal funds and other money, the state Department of Education will explore ditching the high school reading and writing FCATs and replacing them with end-of-course tests.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.

TESTING TIME

Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, FCAT Writing will be administered no earlier than March 1 and the comprehensive statewide assessment of any other subject will be administered no earlier than the week of April 15. Students needing to retake the Grade 10 FCAT have opportunities in October and April.

FCAT writing, which is only administered to fourth-, eighth- and 10th-graders, will be held March 1-3 this year.

The remaining tests — reading, math and science for grades 3-11 — will be administered April 11-22.

Also for the first time this year: The state has implemented an end-of-course exam for students taking Algebra I. For those students, those exams will be held in May and replace the math FCAT, officials said.

A state law passed in 2010 phases in the three new end-of-course exams in math and science that will replace the high school FCAT math and science exams. It's also is in line with new graduation requirements that say by the 2013-14 school year, incoming high school students will have to pass geometry, Algebra I and biology end-of-course exams to graduate. They would need to also take Algebra II, chemistry or physics and one more rigorous science course.